Back on the Road

I finished my 150th marathon in 2007 and headed off to Panama to do good works as an ecotourism economic development consultant for the Peace Corps. One fifty was a good run, reflecting marathons in a dozen or so countries on four continents. I had a personal best of 2:47, several sub-three hour marathons, and all completed in under 4 hours, except for a few I paced. I really didn’t think I’d tackle another.

After the Rock and Roll Half in San Antonio in November, I settled into an easy pattern of a few days running, a few days biking. It took a torn calf muscle while jogging on the ice in New York last December and a protracted recovery with deep pressure massage, to convince me that I really missed doing those 26.2s.

Now I have my game face on. I haven’t picked out my target marathon yet, but I am back on the roads. The calf muscle debacle reminded me that I had become decidely casual about stretching. Now I put in at least a half hour a day doing stretches and yoga. My long runs are up to 14 miles. I’d like to build a base of about 50 miles a week before number 151.